Töles Khan

Töles Khan was the son of Shibi and the nephew of Ilig. For ten years he was the lesser khan of the eastern Göktürks. As a boy he commanded the eastern camp. From 620 he bore the title of khan. The tribes he taxed resented him.^[1] In 627 Ilig had him flogged for losing an army.^[1] Two years later he went over to the Tang. The eastern khaganate lost its eastern wing before Li Jing’s columns had marched.^[1] He died on the road to court in 631, twenty-nine years old.^[1]

Name

TölisOld Turkic
突利可汗ChineseJiu Tangshu 194
什鉢苾ChineseJiu Tangshu 194
泥步設ChineseJiu Tangshu 194

The Tang history writes his title as 突利可汗, Tuli Khan, and gives his personal name as 什鉢苾, Shiboubi.^[1] The title is the word the Göktürks used for the eastern half of their people, tölis. The same characters render the title his grandfather Yami held under Tulan. The form Töles renders the same word.^[2]

Nibu Shad (before 620)

He was the legitimate son of Shibi Khan. In the Daye years of the Sui, when he was a few years old, his father sent him to command the troops of the eastern camp under the title Nibu Shad.^[1] When the Sui princess Huainan came north, he was given her as his wife.^[1] The command was nominal, since he was a child. It shows the custom by which the house tried its heirs in the office of shad.

Lesser khan (620–627)

Shibi died in the second month of 619.^[1] Shiboubi was too young to succeed him. The tribes set up his uncle Chula.^[1] Chula died within the year. In 620 the princess Yicheng set up Chula’s brother Duobi as Ilig Khan. Ilig made Shiboubi Tuli Khan, with his camp due north of Youzhou.^[1] In the east he governed the two Xi peoples and several dozen other tribes. He taxed them without measure. The tribes came to hate him.^[1]

He rode beside Ilig into China. In the eighth month of 624 the two khans invaded by way of Yuanzhou with the whole strength of the state.^[1] Li Shimin rode out to the Göktürk line with a hundred horsemen. He called Ilig to single combat. Then he had Töles reminded of their oath and asked where the feeling of their “incense fire” had gone. Ilig heard the words and began to suspect his nephew. He drew back.^[1] The oath was real. From the Wude years Töles had bound himself to Li Shimin. The prince had treated him with favour. The two had sworn brotherhood. The bond outlasted the war.^[1]

The break with Ilig (627–629)

In the first year of Zhenguan, 627, the Xueyantuo, the Uyghurs and the Bayirku north of the Yin mountains rose together. They drove off Ilig’s Yukuk Shad.^[1] Ilig sent Töles against them. Töles lost the army and rode back alone. Ilig held him for more than ten days.^[1] His biography adds the flogging and the reason. The Xi and their neighbours had gone over to the Tang. Ilig was angry that Töles had lost the people and sent him north against the Xueyantuo. When Töles lost the army there, Ilig had him imprisoned and beaten.^[1] From then on Töles bore a grudge and meant to break away.^[1] Ilig’s rule fell into disorder. He demanded troops from Töles again and again. Töles refused them, and the rift was open.^[1] A modern account describes the imprisonment as ten days of torture. It dates the flight to China, and the submission at Chang’an, to 21 April 628.^[2]

In the third year, 629, he sent a memorial asking to come to court.^[1] The Xin Tang Shu and the Zizhi tongjian set his request to the Tang in 628.^[3] Taizong told his ministers what he made of it. The rulers of old who had worn themselves out for their people had lasted. Those who had used their people for themselves had fallen. The people of the north were perishing because their lord was no lord. That Töles wished to come to court showed how hard he was pressed. Seeing him brought so low, the emperor could not help fearing for himself. He asked his ministers not to slacken in their remonstrances.^[1] Ilig then attacked Töles. Töles sent to ask for troops. Taizong said that he had sworn brotherhood with Töles and could not fail to save him. Du Ruhui answered that the barbarians had never kept faith. The Tang might keep the treaty, he said, but they would break it. The way was to take them in their disorder. Taizong agreed and had the general Zhou Fan garrison Taiyuan.^[1] Töles led his people over. The emperor received him with great honour and sent him dishes from his own table.^[1] The annals set the crossing in the twelfth month of 629, with the Yushe Shad and the tegin Yinnai. By then Li Jing’s six columns were already ordered out.^[1] Ilig fell three months later. The conquest has its own article.

In Tang service (630–631)

In 630 Taizong made him General of the Right Guard and Prince of Beiping commandery with seven hundred households. He organised his followers into the prefectures of Shun and You and sent him back to lead his tribes.^[1] The speech that went with the appointment is preserved. “Your grandfather Yami lost his army and came alone to the Sui; the Sui set him up again, he grew strong, and he never repaid the favour. Your father Shibi became the scourge of the Sui, and since then not a year has passed without your raids. Heaven has punished it; your people are scattered and nearly all dead, and only at the end of your resources have you come to me. I do not make you khan, because of what Yami did. I change the old way, so that China may have peace and your house may last, and I make you a governor. Keep my laws, keep your tribes in order, and do not raid; if you break this, the punishment will be heavy.”^[1] The speech states in one sentence the prefecture system that governed the Göktürks for fifty years.

In 631 he was summoned to court.^[1] On the road, at Bingzhou, he fell ill and died, twenty-nine years old. Taizong mourned him and ordered Cen Wenben to write the text of his stele. His son Heluohu succeeded to his command.^[1] In 639 his brother Jiesheshuai attacked the emperor’s travelling palace with forty men. The interregnum article carries that rising and its consequence, the khanate of Ashina Simo.^[1]

Assessment

Töles is the khan whose defection decided the war of 630 before it was fought. The eastern wing he took to the Tang was the half of the state that faced the Xi, the Khitan and the Xueyantuo. Without it Ilig had no east. His own reward was a governorship, a princely title and two years of life. The Tang history keeps his story because Taizong’s two speeches were spoken over him. One is on the lord who was no lord, the other on the khan who would not be made khan.